The destructive effect of X-rays on living cells has long been known and with the widespread use of X-ray diagnostic and treatment procedings and equipment there have been developed many types of protective devices for operators of X-ray equipment. Modern X-ray diagnosis has rapidly expanded from relatively simple dental and bone X-rays to complex diagnostic techniques employing radiographic dies as in the crystoscopic examination of the urinary tract or in knee arthrograms and spinal myelograms. Such procedures require a specialist or physician to be close to or in actual contact with the patient during X-ray diagnoses and thus subject to repeated exposure to secondary and stray radiation. U.S. Pat. No. 3,308,297 shows a shield accommodating the passage of instruments and U.S. Pat. No. 3,984,696 shows a shield penetrable by the hands of an operator to reposition or examine a patient between actual X-ray tube operation. Radiation shields are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,640,937 to Munday and U.S. Pat. No. 4,020,346 to Dennis, for example, and various types of X-ray shielding systems and devices are shown in Caldwell (U.S. Pat. No. 931,034), Mort (U.S. Pat. No. 3,030,508), Buckey (U.S. Pat. No. 3,448,266), Sweeney (U.S. Pat. No. 3,903,425) and Collica (U.S. Pat. No. 3,984,696) for example. Many problems of shielding arising from new X-ray techniques remain to be solved.